Chicago Project Trains Communists, Builds Working-Class Confidence

CHICAGO, July 17—More than 100 members and friends, ages 11-72, women and men, Asian, Latin, Black, and white participated in the weeklong Summer Project. The goal of the Summer Project was to support the political struggles in Chicago, educate ourselves and our base, and reach out to workers across the region with a revolutionary communist analysis.
Communist Agitation
On the first day, during a cookout in the park, comrades and friends worked together to develop a
political editorial for CHALLENGE. We struggled together to understand the complex ideas of inter-imperialist rivalry and then write about them in a way to help working-class readers understand and see the need to fight back.
The next day we went to three bus barns to talk to bus operators. In Chicago, the bus and train operators are in different locals of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Local 308, the train operators, had held a strike authorization vote with 97 percent voting in favor of a strike. They have been working without a contract for 18 months and management wants to make cuts to their healthcare and pensions. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) encouraged members of Local 241, the bus operators, to support their brothers and sisters in local 308, and to take a strike authorization vote of their own (see letters, page 6). The bus operators were impressed to see so many young people up at 4:30 in the morning distribute them leaflets and newspapers on their way into work, and had a wonderful response to our militant, revolutionary message.
After our morning with the bus operators, we gathered to study political economy. (It is based on the understanding that the economy is a political relationship between classes—under capitalism that relationship is one of exploitation of the working class by the capitalists for profit. Political economy also helps us understand how capitalism is a historical process that must be replaced by communism.)
Capitalist education and media will have you believe that these are complex ideas that only experts can really understand. But PL’ers know the working class can and must know how capitalism exploits the working class—so we can fight it. Veteran and new, Black, Latin, Asian, and white, we all worked together to break down these ideas and connect them to our lives.
When we later sold CHALLENGEs at CTA bus stops in the afternoon, Black workers on the South Side of Chicago were happy to see an organization calling for the destruction of racism. By the end of the day, we had distributed 1,000 papers to workers in Chicago! We received the same response throughout the Summer Project, as we held many CHALLENGE sales. One day as we were rallying at a hospital, a sheriff van with imprisoned workers drove by, and as the workers heard what we were saying on the bullhorn, some lifted their fists in solidarity. A comrade reflected that “they were like all of the working class—imprisoned by capitalism but still keeping a fight back spirit alive.”
Our last day was spent in a predominantly Latin neighborhood situated right next to Cook County jail. The jail is the largest single-site jail in the U.S., with a current population of about 7,500, and an average of 70,000 people passing through its cells each year. We marched to the jail, making the link between racist mass deportations and mass incarceration, with speeches and chants in both Spanish and English. The response to the paper and our march was overwhelming.
Communist Education
Education is a weapon, and we made sure we were well-armed during the Summer Project. Each day there were study groups covering topics ranging from the political economy of healthcare, to the divisiveness of identity politics, to the history and role of policing in the U.S. Through these interactive sessions we gained deeper understanding of how the world works and how we have to change it. One college comrade realized during the discussion about political economy that “they really just exploit us on the job everyday.” Other comrades shared ideas and resources so we all emerged stronger to defeat the capitalist system.
We didn’t just read to educate ourselves—we also wrote! We spent the first part of the Summer Project writing, drawing, editing, and translating the next issue of CHALLENGE. Producing the paper in this collective way was enlightening—both for those of us who work on it regularly and those of us who didn’t know everything that goes into producing the paper every two weeks. The new issue was printed in time to use on the last day of the project and it was great to see everyone rushing to read what we had put together so collectively. We should make efforts to always produce  CHALLENGE more collectively.
Another day, one of the most fun ways we learned during the Summer Project was when we rented a school bus and went on an inspiring labor history tour of Chicago, to see the places of communists’ and PL’s long history of fightback.
Communist Culture
Throughout the summer project, we all lived, worked, ate, and learned together. We saw what communist culture looks like—sharing, building each other up to achieve new heights, struggling with each other in honest commitment to build the best Party we can, and committing to hard work for the needs of the working class. Over the week many young and new comrades who were hesitant to give a speech at the beginning, by the end of the week, got on the bullhorn. They shared personal stories that have informed their political views and led chants like “the only solution is communist revolution!”
We had newcomers share viewpoints that expanded our analysis and become leaders. Seeing the growth in everyone as communists was beautiful. By the end of the Summer Project, two people joined the Party! We are excited to grow PLP and build anti-racist class consciousness among the international working class. We can’t wait to get back to our jobs, schools, and communities, where we will build on what we learned this summer, and get our class one step closer to destroying this capitalist system.